Yin and Yang Part 1 - Tango and Judo

Tango

So I've never thought in abelian years that I'd take a Tango class. And yet, I did. It was described to me as "walking" and I thought to myself, I'm pro at walking! I've been walking all my life. You may consider me a walking prodigy since I started walking well before the age of five. But yeah, I have like no rhythm, so I've always balked at the idea of taking any type of dance class.

The class was interesting I'd say. Apparently I jumped in a few classes late so it was a little intense for a noob like me. Intense for walking that is. Although the steps are fairly simple, there are a lot of nuances and subtleties to Tango that must be mastered for one to become a Tango machine. The guy is supposed to all the leading, but he always has to suggest it. Too much force and he'll knock the girl off axis, but too little force and the girl won't know where to go. On the flip side, the girl must be able to read the guy and respond properly to the guy's movements. The guy must invite the girl to step to the right or to rotate left for example. A small movement of the torso should be enough for the girl to know that the guy is inviting her to take a step to the right, as if he's asking her to "please step this way." It doesn't take a lot of room to Tango either. It requires just a small circle such that a guy can orbit around the girl's axis when he spins her. There are actually only a few steps to learn in Tango. Most of the difficulty is knowing how much to move and the little flourishes you can add to show off your pro status. Understanding the music and learning how to move with it is also difficult.

Since this was the first class I took, I bet all the ladies I danced with were like, WTH who is this noob with two left feet. Of course, then they find out that it was my first class and then were like, "Oh you're doing great!" Sure. But because both genders have completely different steps to learn and the class was for beginners, we weren't really able to help each other out, since we had no idea what the other person was supposed to do exactly.

So after two hours of this I was kind of tired of all this subtlety and having to patiently wait for my partner to except my invitation of smooth dancing. I was ready to pummel people onto the cold uninviting mats of my Judo dojo. So finally after two years, I suited up once again in my Judogi.

Judo

Every winter break there is a Judo camp at my local dojo where I've practiced at since I was ten. It's four straight days of practice from 8am to 4pm. It is incredibly exhausting. By the end your neck is crying from gi burns and you don't even care that Santa didn't get you the jet pack you've always wanted 'cause you're just too exhausted. This year I only showed up on the last day of camp. At lunch. Hehe. Okay fine, so I didn't really work out, but I did get a few throws in and took a few falls so that was nice. In the back of my mind I was actually wondering if I still remembered how to tie my belt. I can't get demoted for forgetting can I? A black belt who can't tie his own belt? Anyway it all came back to me. Muscle memory is pretty strong when you've done the same thing for like 10 years. My belt has my Chinese name sewn in gold on one end and my dojo's name sewn on the other end. It's pretty sweet.

It was nice being able to catch up with the people at Judo. It's always a shock to me at how much the kids have grown. Seeing kids that were in elementary school when I was there during high school and now seeing them in high school and going to college makes me realize how old I've gotten. And because I only visit the dojo every once in a while, I only recognized a handful of kids at the team tournament this year. At the end of every winter camp we hold a team tournament. The tournament consists of four teams of ten or so people, depending on how many kids show up for camp. The members on a team are ordered by strength and the corresponding members of each team face off one match at a time. Wouldn't it be ridiculous if everyone could run out and fight at the same time like in a brawl? Anyway, whichever team has the most wins win. The two winning teams fight each other and the two losing teams fight each other and the unbeaten team is declared the winner.

I've given all this info, but most of you probably don't even know what Judo is - or only have a basic understanding of it. I won't get into too much detail but I'll try to provide some help. Judo, translated from Japanese, means "gentle way." Let me tell you, it's not that gentle - it's not fun being thrown. It's gentle in the sense that there are no strikes in the form of punches or kicks - Judo primarily consists of throws. The "Judo chop" does not exist, which is what makes the idea of it funny. Judokas, people who practice judo, wear heavy gis and most of the techniques makes use of grips at the collar and the sleeves to push and pull their opponent. Taekwondo on the other hand has much lighter uniforms. Other than Taekwondo, Judo is the only martial art that is also an Olympic sport.

In competition, fighting begins in the standing position but can lead to groundwork on the mat. The standard way to win is to throw your opponent from a standing position. A throw usually consists of fighting for your grip, off balancing your opponent, and leveraging them over a hip, a leg, or a foot to get them to fall onto his back. Alternatively you can pin the opponent. Unlike wrestling, where you need to get both your opponent's shoulders down for it to count as a pin, in Judo you only need to get one shoulder down, but you must hold it for 25 seconds for it to be a full point and count as a win. Other groundwork techniques are submission techniques - chokes and armbars. For chokes you usually apply pressure on the artery on the neck and the opponent can give up by tapping out or, pass out. For armbars you apply pressure on his joints. You must be 13 to perform chokes and 17 to perform armbars in competition.

So with that, I will leave you with a video:

Mixed Martial Arts

I'm by no means a big fan or expert of MMA, but I've watched enough of it to have become mostly desensitized to the knee-pounding and blood-gushing moments of the UFC. On Saturday night, I watched for the first time on pay-per-view, a UFC event that was being broadcasted live. There were a lot of big matchups (so I was told) including two title fights, which made the event particularly exciting. However, I was disappointed that I didn't get to see any wins by submission. Most matches ended in a TKO (Technical Knock Out), in which the ref will end the fight if a contestant is no longer intelligently defending (brutal blows to the head). I find submission techniques to be more interesting because they are the closest application of Judo in MMA. Sometimes throws are used for take downs (it'd be awesome to see an Uchimata thrown in there), but chokes and armbars that force an opponent to submit or "tap out," are probably the most relevant weapons from a Judo practitioner's perspective. I'm not so good at following the boxing/kickboxing elements of MMA, but when they do groundwork I can usually understand what is going on.

Despite how vicious the fights look, MMA is still a sport, and it's pretty well controlled. To protect the players, there are many restrictions to the types of moves that can be done. For example, no blows to the back of the head, no kneeing the head of a grounded opponent, and of course no strikes on the family jewels. The refs have a huge responsibility to enforce these rules and also call a match if one player is no longer defending intelligently. There can be a lot of blood and cringe-inducing strikes, but considering what MMA is, it's relatively safe.

Aside from the fights, one of the most amusing things about these contests is when the contestants pimp their sponsors' wares. After the match is over, the trainers will make sure they get their guy to put on a t-shirt that is emblazoned with logos and have them take a swig of some energy drink. cha-ching! Oh, and on a side note, the octagon girls are hot.

After watching three straight hours of MMA, I did get pretty bored though. It's helped me learn a lot more about the wonders and pageantry of MMA, but I doubt I'll follow it any more closely.

*Links to gifs c/o of gif-master Andrew.

Clint Eastwood

I love watching movies. I can watch movies of almost any genre as long as they're good. And for me, "good" usually means above 80% on Rotten Tomatoes or by Roger Ebert's recommendation. I'm much more lax on the RT rating for Superhero movies and certain comedies, but rarely will I watch a movie under 60-70%. That said, each year there are a few movies that really get my attention. So far this year, I'd say I was pretty obsessed with Iron Man, Indiana Jones KotCS, and Quantum of Solace.

There's always a bit of "gearing up" before the release of each movie. I read a lot of Iron Man comics leading up to the movie. Prior to the fourth Indiana Jones movie, I rewatched the original trilogy, changed my ringtone to the Indy theme, and decided to get a fedora. For Quantum, I almost changed my ringtone to the Bond theme and heavily considered carving a Bond pumpkin (did Megaman instead), but ended up just rewatching Casino Royale.

Now, my current obsession is with Gran Torino. I've never been a big Clint Eastwood fan, but I have seen a few of the movies he's directed: Absolute Power, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby. I have trouble watching old movies, which means I have never seen his Spaghetti Westerns or Dirty Harry movies. However, after watching the Gran Torino trailer, I decided I wanted to witness the badassery that is Clint Eastwood. To prepare, last week I watched a couple Dirty Harry movies (Dirty Harry and The Enforcer), as well as Unforgiven (which won Oscars for Best Picture and Director).

Gran Torino stars Clint as a Korean War veteran whose wife has just passed. I'm still going to refer to Clint's character as Clint, since I don't know off the top of my head what the character's name is. So Clint lives alone in his house, when a Hmong family moves in to his displeasure. He's supposedly racist or something, so he's all like "grrrr." The son of the Hmong family gets in to some shenanigans and tries to steal Clint's Gran Torino (like the movie title! coincidence?), but gets caught. Clint is like "grrrr, oh no you di'nt." Apparently some Asian gang is trying to recruit this kid and stealing Clint's car is part of the initiation process or something, but Clint is like "grrrr, get off my lawn" and is prepared to teach those hoodlums a lesson, in pain. So I guess the movie is part after school special, part old man Dirty Harry, 'cause you know Clint is going to kick some Asian pigu, while he teaches his neighbor about life and stuff. And Clint will just be "grr" instead of "grrrr" by the end of the movie 'cause he'll grow to appreciate his new neighbors and their oddball culture.

In conclusion, you should all go out and watch it. The movie has a still limited but wider release starting today! Other movies I hope to watch this holiday season are The Wrestler and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Ok well, Merry whatever holiday you celebrate!

Journeyman

I don't know why I've chosen to blog about this now. Maybe it's 'cause I got one of my friends hooked on the show the other day and I feel that validates my high regard for the show. Maybe it's for an excuse to link a YouTube video of its theme song, which I love. Maybe it's 'cause it's getting late and my brain has stopped functioning so I just feel like blabbing about whatever.

The show had a short 13 episode run on NBC last year. It had the slot after Heroes, but Journeyman always had low ratings, prompting it to be canceled early. Journeyman was such a wonderful show that it deeply saddened me when it ended, and yet Heroes still lives! There is no justice in this world. But, we should consider ourselves lucky that the writer's strike occurred last season, as it probably enabled the final episodes of Journeyman to be aired since the networks were running out of others things to show.

So what is Journeyman about? I guess at the surface it's about a San Franciscan named Dan Vasser who inexplicably and uncontrollably begins to jump to the past. He has no control over when and where he jumps to, but each time he visits the past he's there to learn or do something that will change the present for the better. It's not always obvious to him or the viewers what he's supposed to accomplish, but there is always a purpose. Something must be pulling his strings.

Ok, now you're probably wondering to yourself, "Ugh, a show about time traveling? There are going to be so many plot holes, and paradoxes, and contradictions!" Well, normally I'd agree with you (ie Heroes), and to some extent do, but it's not the time traveling aspect of the show that makes it so compelling. It's how this burden and duty affects Dan and his family life (wife and son). We become emotionally invested in his struggle to keep his family together, while he tries to perform a seemingly noble duty. He has little warning when he jumps to the past, and when he returns back to the present, the amount of time that has since elapsed varies, so that he becomes unreliable as a husband and father. I'm not saying there aren't plot holes or time traveling oopsies, but the rest of the show is so good that the little mistakes aren't enough to detract from the show.

For example, one episode Dan and his young son are at a flea market and suddenly Dan vanishes into the past. His son is lost in a sea of people. Dan can no longer risk taking his son out alone, such as to a football game, lest he vanishes again. In one episode, something he does in the past changes the gender of his kid. Dan retains all of his memories, but his wife and daughter have new ones. Can you imagine the pain if you know in your heart and mind that your child is a boy, yet your wife has only ever known her child to be a girl? What would it mean for Dan to "fix" the present? This little girl would cease to exist. How much we care as viewers is a testament to the acting. Kevin McKidd is awesome.

I know I kinda brushed off time traveling earlier, with the exception of how it creates a burden on Dan's life. There's actually a really nice sci-fi mystery element to the show. Remember, Dan doesn't control his time traveling, so something or someone is sending him to locations and times with a purpose. Dan is also not the only time traveler. He's aided by his ex-fiance Livia, who has been time traveling long before him. Btw, the name of the actress who plays Livia is Moon Bloodgood. What an awesome name. As the series progresses, the mystery of his time traveling begins to unfold. Unfortunately, we won't ever get to complete this journey. I can only take solace in that the final episode ended on such a wonderful moment and great note that it will forever be awesome in my memories.

I'm sure I've convinced you that Journeyman is worth watching. And you're in luck! All 13 episodes are on Hulu.

Now, for the theme music:


The mix of Chinese and Western instruments is really a cool touch.

Deep Dish Pizza

People at Berkeley rave about Zachary's Pizza. I've had it a couple times, and although my tummy was quite pleased, I didn't think it was rave-worthy. Tonight I actually went to Zachary's for dinner. Previously I had it when someone had ordered it to go and brought it back. So tonight I thought, okay, now I will get the true experience. The pizza will have been freshly made and placed before me while still piping hot. So I ate and ate and well, it didn't really change my opinion. I really felt like all I was eating was tomato sauce. I don't think it matters what toppings you order; the sauce will just overpower everything. You're really just paying for the texture of the toppings, so if you're gonna pay for toppings you might as well pick healthy ones. I also found the tomato sauce to be a little too acidic for my taste.

Now, let me tell you about Pizza Chicago. Whenever someone tells me how great Zachary's is, I reply, "Yeah it's okay... but Pizza Chicago is waaaaaaaay better. What? You've never heard of Pizza Chicago? Pshh. You don't know anything then. You're just a big deep dish lovin' poser." Unlike Zachary's, the pizza from Pizza Chicago actually resembles pizza. You know, the cheese and toppings are on the outside. And when you order different pizzas, they actually taste different! I know right? Different toppings actually excite different taste buds!!! Holy cow! Okay okay, now you're asking, where can I find this Pizza Chicago? Well, there are only THREE locations in the ENTIRE WORLD. And if you're lucky enough you may live close enough to travel to one. They're located in Palo Alto, San Jose, and Santa Clara. Yeah yeah, Pizza Chicago is not actually located in Chicago. For all I know it's not even representative of Chicago styled pizza. But I don't care. It's hella good. My favorite is Black Hawk (named after Chicago's NHL team). Order it.

Some tips:
-You can get a pizza that's half one special and half another, so it's easy to satisfy multiple people and get variety.
-Every Monday night you get a 25% discount on your entire meal (at the Santa Clara location anyway).
-Sweetness is super delicious. It's a giant chocolate chip cookie with Haagen Daz ice cream on top. Yeah, if you're from Taiwan, you know you love your Haagen Daz. (The Sweetness is pretty much the same thing as a pazookie from BJ's.)

No discussion on Bay Area deep dish pizza would be complete without a mention of BJ's. I don't much care for their pizza. I find it rather salty.

Oh, I don't much like UNO's either. Although I base that on my memories as a kid, and who knows what young me was thinking.

RickRoll'd

I got rickrolled today. And I didn't mind it one bit. In fact, I looped the song a few more times.

...

NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP
NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN
NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU
NEVER GONNA MAKE YOU CRY
NEVER GONNA SAY GOODBYE
NEVER GONNA TELL A LIE AND HURT YOU

ooooooooooo give you up
ooooooooooo give you up
oooooooooooo
never gonna give never gonna give
give you up
oooooooooooo
never gonna give never gonna give
give you up

The Honk

Yesterday, some dude cut into my lane in the middle of a left turn. It was a two-lane left turn and I was on the outer left lane, but while I was making my turn, the guy in the inner left lane cut right in front of me while in the intersection. Luckily, due to my catlike reflexes and NASCAR driving deftness, I was able to brake just enough for the fool to squeeze through.

But I didn't honk.

If my mom was in the passenger seat, she would've reached over to honk the horn of my car at such a transgression (she gets mad). My dad would probably not have even noticed being half asleep. But when it's just me driving, I rarely use the horn. I'm too busy making sure I don't crash to give in to the knee jerk reaction of honking. And by the time the douchebag passes, it seems pointless to honk. So I let it go, 'cause I'm so forgiving. There's a window when a honk makes sense, but once that window passes, it just seems petty. The guy does need to a lesson though, a lesson in pain. I should've followed him to his destination and do a flying windmill to his face. That would make him a better driver.

'Tis the Season

I thought I'd get a little into the festive spirit by buying a tree!

Haha, I thought the instructions were pretty funny:

Step One
Take your new loveable tree and its additional components out of the box.

...

Step Four
Add the red ornament to the longest branch using the ornament hook that is included. This will cause the tree limb to sag, which is okay, because the branch is just heavy from the weight of your love.

I'm gonna be able to fit so many presents to myself under this wonderful tree.

Holy Moly! Fables on ABC

WOW. Awesome news.

Except for the potential that this series may SUCK and make me cry tears of sadness.